[Thor Joachim Haga]

What an intriguing question.

The short answer is….YES!

Some examples, though:

I was never into New Wave, Ska and that kind of stuff while growing up. But as I became a Danny Elfman fan, I inevitably had to collect the Oingo Boingo albums, which in turn led to a greater appreciation of those genres in general (Madness, New Order, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads etc.).

I was never a big jazz fan, but through the prism of film music (primarily John Williams — both his scores and his studio albums as pianist), I opened up a LOT more. Also Mancini, Schifrin, Bernstein and others. I still don’t have a very impressive collection of non-film music jazz that isn’t related to film composers, but the tolerance level is considerably greater than it was. Especially loungey stuff like exotica and erotica.

I hated classical music as a kid (maybe because my dad played it all the time), but while I credit the “London Symphony Orchestra Plays Classic Rock” albums as my gateway into orchestral music, film music opened my eyes and ears to classical music and its various sub periods — like when film composers did pastiche of baroque idioms. No doubt film music opened me to CONTEMPORARY, modernistic concert music. I would never be able to appreciate guys like Penderecki, Ligeti, Stockhausen etc. if it weren’t for Goldsmith, Goldenthal, Corigliano etc. I remember sampling a CD my dad owned of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Webern, Berg) in the early 90s, before I had been properly exposed to those film composers, and absolutely HATED every second of it. But then when I tried it again years later, I found plenty to decipher and enjoy.

I still don’t like country music, unless it’s gravelly and genuine, like Johnny Cash. But my tolerance level has increased due to various down-and-dirty Americana scores. Again, Williams plays a big part – and also his studio albums (his four albums with Frankie Laine, for example, made me appreciate western, which is slightly different than country…but still close enough).

Probably lots more. I’ll think about it.